Montrose Air Rifle Club Results 2-9-14

michaelthomas

michaelthomas

www.thomasrifles.com
Joe and I figured we would be the only 2 shooters, but I got a call about 1:00 from a friend that I met over the summer. He saw the post here and wanted to come down. He shot my gun and did very well for the first time.

Winner of the inaugural match was Joe Rocchia. Only X counts separated the bunch.

Name Rifle Class

Joe Rocchia----Thomas----HV---- 250 18x----250 15x---- 249 17x----749 50x

Mike Niksch----Thomas----HV---- 249 19x----250 19x---- 250 10x----749 48x

Greg Fisher----Thomas----HV---- 250 17x----249 10x---- 250 14x----749 41x


We had a fun time and are looking forward to the next match.

Good job, Joe!
 
Mike WOW!!!
All three 749's and a new shooter Greg's first target a 250 17X !!! That gun of yours is something.
How many Thomas guns have been built?

Great shooting everyone!

Are they .177 or .22's?

Paul
 
Mike, that's funny.

The statement about your friend, "he did pretty well for the first time", and with a strange rifle.

It's also amusing that some of the veteran BR shooters convinced you to shoot from 25 yds instead of 25m.
Didn't want you guys to handicap your selves.
I believe you need to move back to 25m, ha.

What is a Thomas rifle?

Do you have an outdoor 25m range, benches?
Reason I ask, both my daughters, live in Denver (SW of main city). Be nice to have some one to shoot a friendly match with, when visiting.

Later,
Dwight
 
Mike,

Outstanding! But see, if you had moved the targets in to 25Y instead of M, probably everyone would have shot 750's.

Great job,

Dave Shattuck
 
We all shot at 25 yards......ha ha.

Greg is an experienced benchrest shooter.......but this was his first time shooting air rifle. He seemed to have a good time, and I hope he comes back again.

Thomas is my middle name.......so I just call it that since my last name is too difficult to pronounce correctly (Niksch....in german it means nothing.....tough to live up to that :))

The guns are .177 caliber with plain rifling LW barrels. They have electronic triggers (soon to be remote) and solenoid hammers. Current weight is 10 lbs. We shot 8.44's at 795.....but chose to shoot HV anyway since that has the most participants. With the 8.44's it will keep the velocity SD under 1 for 30 shots. It's pretty consistent. It's not regulator picky since they are tuned to take advantage of the PCP's tendency to self regulate over certain velocities. Tuning is done with reg pressure and voltage. Current 12FPE reg pressure is 1050-1150......depending on which version of reg I use. No hammer bounce at low pressure. It's actually a very simple design. The number of moving parts is only a small fraction of those in a normal mechanical gun. I believe the solenoid produces a much more square wave pressure pulse compared to the typical mechanical hammer guns.

We are planning on hosting FT matches here next summer, and that was the reason I built this rifle. I started shooting BR with it to sort it out......and now I have been really enjoying BR.

Dwight....there are several gun clubs here and various outdoor properties that we could shoot on. The club needs to come up with some good portable benches. I'm not sure a portable bench can be good......but we need to work on it. We are shooting indoors off of heavy industrial tool drawer cabinets that are resting on pallets. We can move them with a pallet jack easily, but they don't allow you to get real close or comfortable on them. I have never shot outdoor benchrest before.

Anyway....thanks guys.

Mike
 
This smmer BR

Mike,
Hope you guys stay active. It would give me a reason to visit my daughters more often.

I'll drive when I come out. I have a portable bench I will bring.

The bench I use is not bad. You might want to take a look at it. It is the "the Caldwell Stable Table"
Several online sporting retailers carry it. Just ask Google.

Your right though, no portable is going to give the rock solid comfort and security of a good permanent bench.

Later,
Dwight
 
Sounds like a cool rifle

michaelthomas said:
We all shot at 25 yards......ha ha.

Greg is an experienced benchrest shooter.......but this was his first time shooting air rifle. He seemed to have a good time, and I hope he comes back again.

Thomas is my middle name.......so I just call it that since my last name is too difficult to pronounce correctly (Niksch....in german it means nothing.....tough to live up to that :))

The guns are .177 caliber with plain rifling LW barrels. They have electronic triggers (soon to be remote) and solenoid hammers. Current weight is 10 lbs. We shot 8.44's at 795.....but chose to shoot HV anyway since that has the most participants. With the 8.44's it will keep the velocity SD under 1 for 30 shots. It's pretty consistent. It's not regulator picky since they are tuned to take advantage of the PCP's tendency to self regulate over certain velocities. Tuning is done with reg pressure and voltage. Current 12FPE reg pressure is 1050-1150......depending on which version of reg I use. No hammer bounce at low pressure. It's actually a very simple design. The number of moving parts is only a small fraction of those in a normal mechanical gun. I believe the solenoid produces a much more square wave pressure pulse compared to the typical mechanical hammer guns.

We are planning on hosting FT matches here next summer, and that was the reason I built this rifle. I started shooting BR with it to sort it out......and now I have been really enjoying BR.

Dwight....there are several gun clubs here and various outdoor properties that we could shoot on. The club needs to come up with some good portable benches. I'm not sure a portable bench can be good......but we need to work on it. We are shooting indoors off of heavy industrial tool drawer cabinets that are resting on pallets. We can move them with a pallet jack easily, but they don't allow you to get real close or comfortable on them. I have never shot outdoor benchrest before.

Anyway....thanks guys.

Mike
Click to expand...

Any pictures of the rifles you built? They sound pretty cool.
 
Thanks, Dick......it went well.

Dwight.....I hope we are able to stay active, too. Maybe we can get some more folks on board, too?

Doc......here are a few pics. First is in it's native field target attire......and the second is the benchrest stock I am working on. I have a little left to do. I should have it finished this week, and probably have it back from the anodizer next week. The trigger will be on a small pad that will plug into the gun body. Scope is offset for a right hander. It's pretty low profile, and will still make LV......barely. I'll probably make a chunkier one for HV.

Mike
 

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michaelthomas said:
Thanks, Dick......it went well.

Dwight.....I hope we are able to stay active, too. Maybe we can get some more folks on board, too?

Doc......here are a few pics. First is in it's native field target attire......and the second is the benchrest stock I am working on. I have a little left to do. I should have it finished this week, and probably have it back from the anodizer next week. The trigger will be on a small pad that will plug into the gun body. Scope is offset for a right hander. It's pretty low profile, and will still make LV......barely. I'll probably make a chunkier one for HV.

Mike
Click to expand...

Wow...nicely done. I'm always in awe of the folks with the skills to build and customize their own gear. Are you planning to keep refining the design and offering for sale at any point or is it just for your own shooting pleasure? :) What advantages would you say it has over the existing designs you've seen? SD of 1 can't get much better.
 
Thanks.

I'm sure things will keep evolving somewhat over time......but I'm pretty happy with the function of things right now. I am planning to sell a few of the 8 actions that I am finishing up.

I believe the electronic hammer will always be a little more consistent than a mechanical hammer. This gun also seems to be inherently efficient. The curve that velocity drops with less hammer strike is way flatter than curves of guns with mechanical hammers. I believe that the electronic hammer produces a much more square wave air pulse than a traditional design.....kind of like a roller cam compared to a flat tappet. You get more area under the curve. The valve opens and closes faster.....especially so on closing. I can get ridiculous efficiency numbers out of mine......but the SD will increase over what it is now. It may double. The solenoid actually has a return spring that the plunger pushes against to open the valve. This ensures that there can be no residual energy transferred after the strike......no hammer bounce, either. The advantage that I have found from that is that I can tune the gun around the point where it would normally self regulate so the regulator is not nearly as big of a player in consistent velocity. You could do this on any gun.......but efficiency will tend to be pretty poor. This gun stays well above average in this state of tune.

I believe the valve on this gun is the smallest that can be found in these power ranges. I has only 25 lbs of pressure holding it closed in LV (12FPE) setup.....and 40 in HV (18FPE). This translates to way less effort required to get it open......which means there is much less disturbance in the gun before the pellet leaves the barrel. Most guns I have studied are 3 times this amount or more.

I guess most other differences are about convenience and comfort. The remote trigger will allow you to put it wherever you want, and will never disturb the gun on firing. The FT trigger is only 2oz anyway......but I like the idea of it being remote since the only contact I made to the gun anyway was to pinch the trigger.

The gun is super easy to load.....since it's from the rear. The barrels are super easy to index.....loosen three screws and turn. Nothing else has to be disturbed. Those are a few things I borrowed from the Mac1.

The offset scope is something I haven't tried, yet. I'm pretty sure I'm going to like it, though. Just easier to get comfortable.

I don't know.....I built it to make me happy. Maybe it will make others happy, too.

Mike
 
michaelthomas said:
Thanks.

I'm sure things will keep evolving somewhat over time......but I'm pretty happy with the function of things right now. I am planning to sell a few of the 8 actions that I am finishing up.

I believe the electronic hammer will always be a little more consistent than a mechanical hammer. This gun also seems to be inherently efficient. The curve that velocity drops with less hammer strike is way flatter than curves of guns with mechanical hammers. I believe that the electronic hammer produces a much more square wave air pulse than a traditional design.....kind of like a roller cam compared to a flat tappet. You get more area under the curve. The valve opens and closes faster.....especially so on closing. I can get ridiculous efficiency numbers out of mine......but the SD will increase over what it is now. It may double. The solenoid actually has a return spring that the plunger pushes against to open the valve. This ensures that there can be no residual energy transferred after the strike......no hammer bounce, either. The advantage that I have found from that is that I can tune the gun around the point where it would normally self regulate so the regulator is not nearly as big of a player in consistent velocity. You could do this on any gun.......but efficiency will tend to be pretty poor. This gun stays well above average in this state of tune.

I believe the valve on this gun is the smallest that can be found in these power ranges. I has only 25 lbs of pressure holding it closed in LV (12FPE) setup.....and 40 in HV (18FPE). This translates to way less effort required to get it open......which means there is much less disturbance in the gun before the pellet leaves the barrel. Most guns I have studied are 3 times this amount or more.

I guess most other differences are about convenience and comfort. The remote trigger will allow you to put it wherever you want, and will never disturb the gun on firing. The FT trigger is only 2oz anyway......but I like the idea of it being remote since the only contact I made to the gun anyway was to pinch the trigger.

The gun is super easy to load.....since it's from the rear. The barrels are super easy to index.....loosen three screws and turn. Nothing else has to be disturbed. Those are a few things I borrowed from the Mac1.

The offset scope is something I haven't tried, yet. I'm pretty sure I'm going to like it, though. Just easier to get comfortable.

I don't know.....I built it to make me happy. Maybe it will make others happy, too.

Mike
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. Sent you a PM. If you have some time to email please contact me at casey.robertson AT gmail.com

-Casey
 
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